26 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



kept wood, coals, &c, in a back place, and had to cross the passage referred 

 to often during the day, and sometimes after dark. On such occasions the 

 bird would sometimes come out of the hole and attack the person carrying 

 the light, but he, being fond of our feathered friends, did not resent such 

 treatment, but retreated as soon as possible, and in other ways showed 

 kindness to his visitor. — J. G. Hamling (Barnstaple). 



The Treatment of Eider Ducks in Captivity.— I received two ducks 

 and a drake last year (in September) from the Orkneys. They had been 

 reared mainly on earthworms, but would also eat a little oatmeal made into 

 a ball, and bread. When I turned them on to my water (though I had given 

 them opportunities in an aviary of bathing and getting their oil-glands to 

 work) they got miserably soaked, and were all three more or less affected 

 with lung disease afterwards. One duck pined away and died, the others 

 got better. The interior of the duck that died was much affected with 

 tubercle on the vital organs, and immediately after death there was a 

 quantity of green mould within the cavity of the breast. I got the other 

 two birds gradually to eat barley-meal and bread as their main food, with 

 ox-liver, or earthworms, at one meal. I fed them three times a day. During 

 last winter both of them were at times very capricious in their feeding, 

 sometimes one and sometimes the other going amiss for three or four weeks 

 at a time, and I never thought they would survive. Generally they would 

 never touch shell-fish of any kind ; but when they were amiss it sometimes 

 happened that they would fancy periwinkles or mussels, and then I got more 

 of these for them, and they became strong again. I never found that my 

 birds would eat the shell-fish in their shells, nor, if the latter were broken 

 and crushed. They always required the " winkle" or mussel to be shelled 

 and thrown to them, or they would not touch them. They " went wrong" 

 perhaps four times, each bird, between October, 1886, and May, 1887. 

 Once or twice they would eat nothing at all for three or four days (i. e., the 

 bird that was unwell at the time), and then it began to feed greedily on 

 maize and barley, and recovered on that diet. When the male began to 

 assume the dull plumage of early summer (I will refer to their change of 

 plumage later) he very nearly died. During June, July, and August both 

 birds did well, mainly upon barley-meal. In September the drake was 

 very bad indeed, and a day or two later the duck was slightly affected, — 

 with " roup," I believe, a nasty discharge running from the tear-duct of the 

 eye, and eventually the drake lost the sight of one eye, and the other was 

 weakened. This eye is better now. The drake was moulting heavily during 

 this illness, and it went hard with him ; but now both birds seem very well. 

 At this moment (Nov. 20th) they are floating in a small pool surrounded by 

 ice, for we have had some keen frosts lately, and both of them look as healthy 

 as possible. I have never got my birds to eat any fish, though I have often 

 offered it to them in various ways. The male eats bread, especially brown 



